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Bolivia approves $1.9 billion IMF deal, eliminates diesel subsidies · Best of: Features

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  Bolivia approves one point nine billion dollars IMF deal eliminates diesel subsidies.
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  Written by Carlos Valdez and Isabel Debra. This article is being read
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  by an automated voice, generated by Everlet. La Paz, Bolivia, the
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  AP. Bolivian lawmakers approved a one point nine billion dollars loan, agreement
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  with the International Monetary Fund on Friday, delivering the Conservative government a
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  key victory in its efforts to ease the country's deep economic crisis
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  as unions threatened renewed protests. Just hours after Congress approved the loan,
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  President Rodrigo Paz announced an immediate end to subsidies for the diesel
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  powering Bolivia's trucks, buses and tractors, a step toward meeting IMF demands.
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  Gasoline, used mainly in private cars, would remain subsidized for now, though
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  Paz had already scaled back that support in recent months. The Senate
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  ratified The IMF Agreement a day after the lower house approved it,
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  clearing the final legislative hurdle for the three year financing program aimed
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  at replenishing dwindling foreign reserves and stabilizing the ailing economy, marked by
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  high inflation and weak growth. The
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  IMF first announced the staff level agreement in July after months of
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  negotiations with Paz's market friendly government, which took power last year after
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  nearly two a decades of socialist rule as part of a wave
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  of new Latin American leaders allied with the Trump administration. The program
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  still requires approval from the IMF's Executive Board before funds can be
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  dispersed. Economy Minister Christian Morales told Senators that the deal would give
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  other lenders, including the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank,
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  greater confidence in the government and help it secure about five billion
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  dollars in additional financing. But the assistance is conditioned on tough economic
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  measures, including the elimination of fuel subsidies, that threatened to reignite unrest
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  in Bolivia, where weeks of road blockades in June and July paralyzed
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  much of the South American nation as demonstrators demanded Paz's resignation. Congress
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  on Thursday extended for another ninety days a state of emergency that
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  Paz had declared to clear roads during the protests. It allows for
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  military intervention and the suspension of some civil liberties. The Bolivian Workers
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  Central, the country's Main Labor Federation, and other unions have voiced fierce
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  opposition to the IMF loan, warning that the government spending cuts required
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  under the deal would drive up living costs and deepen hardship for
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  struggling families. Although Paz's Christian Democratic Party lacks a majority in Congress,
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  the centrist and right-wing lawmakers that dominate both chambers rallied behind the
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  deal. The movement toward socialism, the party that dominated Bolivian politics after
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  the former Coca Growers Union leader Evo Morales won the presidency in
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  2005, now holds just two of the 130 seats in the lower
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  house, and one in the 36 member Senate. Declining natural gas exports
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  have deprived Bolivia of dollars needed to import gasoline and diesel, contributing
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  to chronic fuel shortages that began in twenty twenty three and have
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  persisted under PAS. The Iran war has pushed up global fuel costs,
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  making fuel subsidies an even greater burden on public finances. No one
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  can buy something expensive and sell it cheap, Pas said in his
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  late night declaration that diesel in Bolivia would now be sold at
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  international prices. To cushion the blow, he announced about seventy nine million
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  dollars in cash assistance for two point nine million Bolivians, along with
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  loans on preferential terms for truckers, small businesses and producers facing higher
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  diesel costs. He pledged to redirect subsidy spending towards schools, hospitals, and
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  roads. He promised the change would end the country's persistent diesel shortages,
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  which have disrupted harvests and delayed deliveries of imported goods. With this
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  measure we guarantee supplies twenty four hours a day, seven days a
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  week, he said. Debray reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.